THE CULTIVATOR. 
107 
This is formed by inserting several rows of spikes, or cast or 
wrought iron darts, in a common hard wood roller. The concave 
or scalloped roller is adapted to the form of ridges, and is often 
attached to the turnip drill. _ 
The Season has virtually terminated, as regards (he crops of 
this year. The com crop will be a light—very light one—not 
much if any more than half a fair average, in this and neighbor¬ 
ing counties. We have not had the usual hot weather. We have 
seen the thermometer but once over 90° during the summer, and 
then it was but 91°. The ground has at no time, therefore, re¬ 
ceived its accustomed warmth—and consequently vegetation is at 
least two weeks later than ordinary. We visited Otsego in the 
middle of last month. The oat crop, which is unusually large 
and productive, was then mostly standing, or in the field. Some 
barley remained to be harvested, and in some instances we saw 
the farmers still gathering their hay. We learnt, that in the coun¬ 
ties lying upon the head waters of the Susquehannah, the corn had 
been much injured by the frost of the 4th August, and that the 
frosts of the first half of September, had seriously augmented the 
calamity. Hardly enough has ripened well for seed the coming 
year. Throughout the north part of the state, the crop, we fear, 
is thin, light and late. This lesson should admonish our farmers 
to select for future culture, the earliest varieties, and to plant early. 
We would suggest, as further precautions, to underdrain corn 
grounds, if they are not perfectly dry in early spring—and to dung 
well with unfermented dung. This will enable them to plant early, 
and will accelerate the growth and maturity of the crop from ten 
to fourteen days. 
The backwardness of the season is not only indicated by farm 
crops, but by the products of the garden, and the indigenous plants 
of the forest. The fruits of the former, particularly grapes, have 
been unusually late, and many did not reach their accustomed 
maturity before they were cut down by the frost. We apprehend 
serious damage to the hop crop, which in frosty situations could 
hardly have had time to ripen well. 
Sheep. —Our correspondents, it will be seen, differ upon the re¬ 
lative profits, to the farmer, of different breeds of this animal. 
While these differing opinions are maintained with decorum, they 
serve to enlighten the public mind as to the good qualities of each. 
The Merino and the Saxon, we believe, had a common origin at 
no remote period ; and their present difference is owing to breed¬ 
ing and climate. Upon the same farm, and under a like manage - 
ment, they will probably again approximate more and more to 
each other. It seems to be a well established fact, that the fleece 
of a breed cannot be improved in fineness except at the expense 
of carcase ; nor the carcase improved, by high keep, or cross with 
a larger breed, without deterioration in the quality of the fleece. 
A friend a few days ago, informed us, that by graining some fine 
fleeced sheep, during the last winter, he had added half a pound 
to the weight of their accustomed fleece, but that this increase in 
weight was made at the expense of quality ; and he doubted whe¬ 
ther the intrinsic value of the fleece had been increased. Another 
fact is worth remembering—the sheep, like the horse and ox, “is 
vastly modified in its form and characters by the physical condi¬ 
tion of the countries in which he is naturalized.”—j Low. If fed 
in a country of plains and rich herbage, he tends to become large, 
his fleece heavy and comparatively coarse. If in an elevated 
country, where the herbage is scanty, the size and fleece diminish, 
while the texture of the latter is improved. 
Agricultural School—Pattern Farm. —We invite the reader’s 
attention to the communication of the Hon. James Barbour, which 
we copy to-day from the Farmers’ Register, with the accompany¬ 
ing remarks of the editor of that paper. Although written for 
Virginia, by one of her most eminent statesmen, the remarks ap¬ 
ply with equal force to New-York ; and we cannot but hope, that 
the friends of agricultural improvement (and who are not profes¬ 
sedly such ?) in our state, will adopt some efficient course to speak 
so that they can be heard, and their wishes respected, on these and 
other subjects of abiding interest to our country. 
The difference between ripe and unripe fruits , is strikingly il¬ 
lustrated in the following table, which we copy from Chaptal. 
Whether used in the kitchen, for the dessert, or for cider, the in¬ 
trinsic value of fruits depends in a great measure upon the rela¬ 
tive quantity of sugar they contain, this being principally what 
imparts to them nutritive and grateful properties. Although the 
experiment was made upon the apricot, the principle, it is believ¬ 
ed, will hold good in regard to the apple, and most of the garden 
fruits. 
Apricots very green. More advanced. Ripe. 
Animal matter,. 0.76 0.34 0.17 
Green coloring matter,.. 0.04 0.03 0.10 
Woody substance, ... 3.61 2-53 1.86 
Gum, . 4.10 4.47 5.12 
Sugar,... some appearances . 8.64 16.48 
Malic acid, .. 2.10 2.30 1.80 
Water,....... 89.39 _84.49 47.84 
THRESHING MACHINES. 
Two new machines have fallen under our recent notice, Shaw's 
and Pitt's. They are both from the far east, always prolific ip 
inventions. They are sold at moderate prices, are of two horse 
power, and promise to perform well. As both of these machines 
will probably be exhibited at the Fair on the 13th and 14th Octo¬ 
ber, we rather await the opinion of the examining committee than 
hazard our own prematurely, on their relative merits. 
The proprietor of the latter (Pitt’s) has handed to us the cer¬ 
tificates of a number of Maine farmers, and of a committee of the 
Kennebeck Agricultural Society, commendatory of his machine. 
The latter say, “the improvements appear to be—1, a greater 
ease for the horse, [two are more advantageously used.] 2. Less 
weight in the machine. 3. Less expense to the purchaser.” 
THE IMPOLICY OF MEASURING LIME BY WEIGHT. 
“ Bishop Watson found by experiment, that upon an average, every ton of 
limestone produced It cut. 1 qr. 4 lbs. quick lime, weighed before it was cold; 
and that when exposed to the air it increased in weight, daily, at the rate of a 
hundred weight per ton, for the first five or six days after it was drawn 
from tlie kiln.”— Park’s Chemistry. 
Notwithstanding this palpable fact, the common council of the 
good city of Albany have ordained, that lime shall be bought and 
sold by weight in our market. The consequence is, that the seller, 
by exposing his lime to the air, tor six days after it is drawn from 
the kiln, adds to its weight, and consequent value in the market, 
more than 25 per cent, and the buyer pays for this amount over 
and above the true value of the lime. A ton of fresh well burnt 
lime will absorb and solidify 680 lbs of water, without any sensi¬ 
ble deterioration, to a superficial observer, in its quality, and with¬ 
out the lime being slaked. One bushel of fresh burnt stone lime 
will make two bushels of slaked lime. The buyer should, there¬ 
fore, obtain it in the stone, fresh drawn from the kiln, and buy by 
measure, and not by weight. 
Weeds exhaust the fertility of the soil as much as cultivated 
plants. Though it may be too late to prevent their growth the 
present season, it is not too late to destroy the seeds of many which 
have been permitted to attain maturity, and the labor of doing this 
will be amply repaid another season, in the comparative cleanness 
of our gardens and fields. It is particularly the fault of farmers 
to neglect their gardens after midsummer, and to suffer them to 
be overgrown by rank weeds, whose seeds multiply a hundred 
fold. A day or two employed in the early part of the present 
month, in collecting them from the garden and fields, will be pro¬ 
fitably spent. They may be thrown into the cow-yard or on a 
dung-pile, where fermentation will generally destroy their vitality 
before the dung is carried to the field in the spring. They had 
better be collected and burnt, than suffered to spread their seeds 
over the farm. 
To preserve Cellery. —Get up the cellery on a fine dry day, before 
it gets injured by frost, cut off all the leaves and roots, [fibrous roots] 
and lay it in a dry airy place for a few days, then remove it to a 
cool cellar, where it will be quite secure from frost, and pack it up 
with sand, putting layers of sand and cellery alternately.— Loudon. 
The Grain Worm has reached as far west as Minden, between 
fifty and sixty miles west of Albany. A farmer residing there in¬ 
formed us, that there were some of the worms in his wheat, and 
that seven miles east of him they had destroyed half of the crop. 
To destroy lice upon cattle. —H. H. C. in the Farmers’ Register, 
recommends “the use of a little flour of sulphur, given internally 
once or twice a week, with salt, which is eaten kindly,” and which 
he says he has practised with great success. 
